SDMA School Board Meeting - March 24

Future of Downsville Elementary School on agenda

The SDMA School Board's regular meeting will be held on Monday, March 24th, at 5:45 p.m., at Knapp Elementary School. The agenda can be found below.

The future of Downsville Elementary is on the agenda. Supplemental information is available under the agenda at the bottom of this post.

The live stream can be found here. Eye on Dunn County also provides a live stream on Facebook and its website.

All supplemental documents can be found here. (Click on the meeting at the top middle of the page, then click view the agenda. Any agenda item with a paper icon indicates additional documents/information.)

Student enrollment at Downsville Elementary School has declined 26% over the past 10 years (see chart below). With only a handful of 5K students planning to attend Downsville next year, it is projected that enrollment will decline even further over the next two years. The Board will need to discuss if keeping Downsville Elementary School open for the 2025-26 school year is a viable option for the school district.

Principal Stacy Lee sent a letter to Downsville families back in February to share information about extremely low kindergarten numbers for next year and to ask for help with boosting enrollment. A letter was also sent to all 4K families in the School District of the Menomonie Area to gauge interest in the possibility of having other students from across the SDMA attend Downsville next year to take advantage of smaller class sizes. Since that time, projected enrollment for next year at Downsville Elementary has continued to shrink. The district has been informed that some Downsville students will be attending school in town next year via in-district transfer requests or at a private school.

Coupled with declining enrollment, the school district is facing some significant staffing challenges at Downsville Elementary. Staffing changes related to retirement, family moves, and transfer requests from staff members wanting to work in-town next year would result in the district needing to hire an almost entirely new staff. With teacher shortages both locally and across the country, it will be very difficult for the district to recruit and retain a well-qualified staff at Downsville Elementary School.

A meeting to discuss potential solutions was held with Downsville Elementary staff on March 10, and individual meetings with Downsville staff members were being held between March 11-March 14. The school board reviewed elementary class sizes during meetings held on February 24 and March 10, and the Board will be discussing the future of Downsville Elementary School on Monday, March 24.

The Board is tentatively scheduled to vote on a plan for next year at the school board meeting scheduled for April 14 at Downsville Elementary School beginning at 5:45 p.m. 

 Information taken from the SDMA website.